170 PRODUCTION 



world's supplies till the price has risen well above the present level. 1 

 There seems to be no escape from the conclusion that temperate 

 countries will be obliged to practise afforestation on an extensive 

 scale in order to compensate for timber-cutting. That is to say, 

 it will be more profitable for these countries to use part of their 

 land area for forest planting rather than become dependent upon 

 remote or tropical sources of supply. In any case, there are a 

 number of species of trees, yielding timbers in common use, that 

 grow only in extra-tropical climates. Something has already been 

 done, especially in Europe, in planting forests of quick-growing 

 trees (notably in Germany, Belgium and France) and there are 

 indications that this movement will spread under government 

 control in all the more densely peopled countries of the temperate 

 regions where the consumption of timber is greatly in excess of 

 local supplies. 2 



The question arises as to how far re-afforestation will make 

 demands on land now used for agricultural and pastoral industries. 

 In those countries that still have extensive forest areas, such as 

 Russia and Sweden, Canada, Siberia, and to some extent also the 

 United States, future developments in timber-cutting and re- 

 afforestation will probably not cause much more land to be reserved 

 under forests than at present, but there will be a redistribution 

 of the areas so occupied. As timber is cut from standing forests, 

 the more fertile and better situated areas will be taken for agri- 

 culture, while the more elevated, hilly, colder and less fertile areas 

 will be replanted at once. At the same time much of the more 

 elevated and practically useless land will be afforested. It is also 

 possible that the increase in the demand for timber in the densely 

 populated timber-importing countries, such as Great Britain, the 

 countries of Western Europe and parts of Eastern North America 

 will cause afforestation to encroach upon existing productive 

 agricultural lands in these regions, and perhaps even elsewhere. 



From the point of view of animal industries, afforestation in 

 temperate countries would first affect those poorer regions that 

 are now used for rough grazing, and sheep would therefore be 

 chiefly affected in the first stages. If the process of afforestation 

 proceeds to any great extent, animal industries will be driven more 

 and more to an intensive basis of working. On the other hand, 

 rising prices for timber may check consumption and cause substi- 

 tutes to be used more widely, so that afforestation may not claim 

 any considerable areas of productive agricultural land. Never- 

 theless, this process certainly does threaten to withdraw certain 

 rough pastoral areas as forest reserves. 



1 Tropical forests are usually very mixed, and the timbers of comparatively 

 small commercial value. The difficulties in felling and cutting are enormous 

 owing to the profusion of jungle creepers and undergrowth. Transport is 

 almost impossible on the marshy ground except along the rivers, and the 

 labour question causes further difficulties. Some of the timber are heavier 

 than water and cannot, therefore, at present be made available to commerce. 



8 Compare Report of a Royal Commission in Great Britain (Cd. 4460). 



